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'I Was Very Irritated With MS,' Robin Uthappa Shares His Experience With MS Dhoni

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There are like a zillion anecdotes involving MS Dhoni and how he runs Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Under Dhoni's astute leadership, CSK - apart from bagging four trophies - have taught them to win games in uncomfortable situations and play with opposition players' minds.

Various current and former cricketers have praised Dhoni - the tactician. The latest to the list is former Indian wicketkeeper-batter Robin Uthappa, who played under MS in the twilight of his IPL career.

Ever since playing under the CSK captain, Uthappa has been a fan of Dhoni and the Super Kings. However, it wasn't always the case.

According to the former CSK batter, before coming to CSK, Uthappa used to hate playing against MSD and got annoyed with his captaincy style. 

While sharing an anecdote from the past, the cricketer-turned commentator said on JioCinema:"When I played against CSK, I used to be very annoyed. I was very irritated with him." 

The Karnataka-born shared how Dhoni once forced him playing into playing a stroke by using field angles.


Here's how the story goes:

"He (Dhoni) didn't have a fine leg for (Josh) Hazlewood, so I knew he would bowl to this angle (outside-off). I tried getting a boundary there (deep point) and got out. He forces you to play in areas you're not used to. He plays with the batsmen's minds. He does not just force the batsmen to think; differently; he forces the bowlers to think differently as well,

"He puts the bowler in a situation where he feels he needs to take that wicket-taking option. Devdutt was playing the pick-up shot really well. So he said, 'Okay, we will force him to play that shot', and he brought the fine leg more into a leg-gully sort of a position. I was like, 'Where does he come up with these things?'"

Before joining Chennai, Uthappa had played for several IPL franchises and won two titles with Kolkata, but the stumper still states CSK is the best thing that happened to him.